1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a medical diagnosis apparatus for observing an observation target using ultrasound. The disclosure also relates to an ultrasound observation system, a method for operating the medical diagnosis apparatus, and a computer-readable recording medium.
2. Related Art
Ultrasound is applied in some case for observing characteristics of a living tissue or material as an observation target. Specifically, ultrasound transmitted toward the observation target is reflected as an ultrasound echo from the observation target, and predetermined signal processing is performed on the reflected ultrasound echo, whereby information related to characteristics of the observation target is obtained.
Ultrasound diagnosis of a living tissue, or the like, inside the body uses an ultrasound endoscope in which an ultrasound transducer is provided at a distal end of an insertion unit. A practitioner including a doctor inserts an insertion unit into the body and operates an operating unit at hand, whereby the ultrasound transducer obtains an ultrasound echo and diagnosis is performed on the basis of information based on the ultrasound echo (e.g. ultrasound image).
FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a system that performs conventional ultrasound diagnosis. An ultrasound diagnosis system 500 illustrated in FIG. 16 includes an ultrasound endoscope 501, an image processing apparatus 502, a keyboard 503, an ultrasound image monitor 504, and an endoscope image monitor 505. The ultrasound endoscope 501 includes an insertion unit. An ultrasound transducer and an imaging element are provided on a distal end of the insertion unit. The image processing apparatus 502 generates an image based on an ultrasound echo and an imaging signal obtained by the ultrasound endoscope 501. The keyboard 503 is connected with the image processing apparatus 502 and used to input a signal such as an instruction signal. The ultrasound image monitor 504 displays an image based on the ultrasound echo. The endoscope image monitor 505 displays an image based on the imaging signal. A practitioner S1 inserts an insertion unit of the ultrasound endoscope 501 into a subject S2, inputs an instruction signal via the keyboard 503 and via an operating unit on the ultrasound endoscope 501, and thus performs adjustment of an ultrasound image, specifically, rotation and movement of the image, thereby performing diagnosis.
Due to the layout of an examination room, or the like, the practitioner S1 and the image processing apparatus 502 (keyboard 503) may be separated from each other. Separation of the practitioner S1 from the image processing apparatus 502 (keyboard 503) would reduce operability. To cope with this issue, there is a technique to enable the practitioner to operate while viewing an ultrasound image monitor 504, or the like, even when the practitioner is separated from the apparatus, by detecting the shape of a finger and allocating functions to the shape in performing pointer and clicking operation (for example, refer to JP 2004-78977 A).